Visit to So. Cal from Belgium in a G Wagon R V
 

I had a visit a few months ago from a couple from Belgium (Heinrick & his wife Ane) that drove their home built 1989 G300 R V to America for an extended vacation.
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k1...y/100_0079.jpg

Heinrick replied to a craigslist ad I had for 'Benz parts. They had already driven 10,000+ miles. He thought he might need a new engine (OM617)because of a rod knock sound, and a space to work on it. I told him he was welcome to use my driveway and stay there as long as needed to do the repairs. It turned out that it did not need an engine after all. He did some major repairs though, and was here for about a week. He removed the radiator and replaced the bent harmonic balancer, removed the trans to check the flywheel bolts, replaced the rear pinion seal, repaired a leak in the oil sender, replaced the slave cyl, belts, coolant,and oil.
Heinrick built the R V body from used fiberglass road signs. I have to say it is the best home built R V I have ever seen.
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k1...y/100_0080.jpg

It is fully self contained with a custom galley
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k1...y/100_0081.jpg
and all the appliances needed to be self contained. All heating/cooking is done with Diesel fired appliances (cooktop, water hearer, furnace). The small refrigerator uses Diesel as well.
It has a shower and toilet as well, and the appropriate holding tanks. This is an awesome rig!

They plan to drive to South America, and return to CA in the summer. They will fly home for a month or so, and come back to finish their vacation through next year. They plan to drive back to Belgium through Russia (having their rig shipped from Canada to Japan?).
They keep in touch via email, or internet phone when they are somewhere with Wi Fi.

I think I heard about this at some point but forgot where the original thread was (On a different forum) Glad to hear that they're back on the road!


What is it with the harmonic balancers on the 617s?

Is his turbo charged or naturally aspirated?

That camper is home built? Wow....I would have never guessed that.

The balancer on the turbocharged engine that he put in (from a TD) was bent. He was able to get a running TD (in Europe of course) for the donor engine and 5 speed manual trans. I had a parts engine out back that he took a good balancer from.
He built the entire camper himself. He is obviously very talented.

Clearly.

Their are a pair of large barrels under the sides.....water containers?

I don't think they are for fuel (Note the Jerry can bracket on the back that is pretty cool :cool:)

I also just noticed that you can travel between the cab and the camper :)

Water, NO- Fuel, YES
The water tank is under the sink. The gray water tank is the angular thing under the driver side rear (behind mud flap), and the black water tank (removable) is behind the access door on passenger side.

Wow those are fuel tanks?

That thing must have a +1,000 range even with the added weight and drag. Again very impressive. Any idea how long it took him to build it?

Not sure exactly, but he had experience. This is the second one he has done, so I imagine he got it done quicker than the first.

A year later, and another visit
 

It has been a little over a year and they showed up again yesterday. Last year they left traveling south headed to Panama. They arrived there, and came back north headed to Alaska. They stopped by to visit and do some needed repairs (adjust valves, replace some rubber parts, fix leaks). Their rig has performed flawlessly since they left last year, but is in need of some basic maintenance. They sent a photo a while back (forgot to post it) of them crossing a river on a barge:
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k1...y/DSC_0010.jpg
It is somewhere in South America.

Wow, that is amazing! The camper, the trip, everything about it is amazing. I was thinking about Miguel, when I read this.

I thought the same thing when Miguel posted the link of the guy that drove as far south in a 300SD in 2007.

Well, I guess the Miguel & Tyler show will be airing soon from the sound of it . . .

This is awesome !!
That one shot of the sink area is incredible. Super nice work. Interesting that they chose to use diesel fuel for cooking. I have used propane fridges, but never knew of diesel for the same.

Any more pictures of the build? This is such a cool story.